thefatalrisk

Hi guys,

My first post here was supposed to be filled with joy and pics of my new acquisition (525i '06) when I had the time. However, fate had another path for me. I think I will reserve my "first" "official" post here for that time. For now, let's just treat this post as unofficial.

I don't know when the actual initial event happened (tyre puncture). It might have been 4 days ago when the RPA signal came on saying I had a flat-tyre. But it had done that a few times before and there was no problem with the tyres. This time when it happened, I had a quick glance at the tyres and everything looked okay, so I drove on. Three days ago, my friend who was sitting in the passenger seat, notices a clicking sound coming from the rear left tyre as I drove. I also heard it. When I went to inspect, couldn't see anything untoward. Continued on. All in all, travelled about 150kms @ avg speed of 100 kmph, over the 2 days. During this time, stopped off at the gas station to inflate the tyres. All tyres were inflating except the rear left - the automatic tyre pump wasn't even turning on.

This morning, went around a round-a-bout (had rained a bit, roads were wet), and the car slipped just a little with the DTC icon coming on momentarily. I knew something was definately wrong then. Took it to the nearest tyre factory. They removed the wheel and lo and behold, behind the tyre (inner aspect), there were 2 massive gashes! (pics attached). From the outer aspect, just looking at the wheel and tyre, it doesn't look flat at all. That deceived me the most. Which is why I kept taking the car out.

OK, I accept the fact the I'm careless and an idiot and should have paid more attention to the RPA signal and the noise, etc. etc. I've learnt my lesson with that.

Next thing is, the cost. $644 AUD EACH !!!! I nearly puked when the dude told me. (I'm a student and can no way afford that).

Anyways, I have 3 questions.

1) Any damage likely to have been sustained to the car or wheel?

2) What's the likely cause of the gashes? The tyre dude said I may have had a nail in there initially, which may have caused it, or something. Or could there be something protruding out of the wheel arch, suspension etc.

3) Is it a necessity to put RFTs (run-flat tyres) on the wheel once I get them replaced? The guy at the tyre factory said (although he wasn't too sure) that because it was an expensive car (beema) I should put on what came with it because of the pressure monitors etc etc. (Just as I write this, got a phone call from another tyre company saying it's ok to put 2 non-RFTs in back and leave 2 front as RFTs, so I guess that answers that q.)

I read up on wikipedia, that RFTs thread lasts ~ 1/4 the distance compared to standard tyres and that they are much more expensive. I have a spare replacement (temp) wheel for the car, so I gather I could get away with using non-RFTs, right? Any disadvantages/advantages?

Regards

hondik

Hi, where are you from? Do you have bad roads over there??

You should have all your tires the same so if you replace to non-RFT, change all 4. If you replace only the rear one, replace the whole pair.

You are lucky you didn't go too fast (over 200Km/h) with such incredible caves in your tires

snkpkp

"Next thing is, the cost. $644 AUD EACH !!!! I nearly puked when the dude told me. (I'm a student and can no way afford that)" --- well you do own a E60 being a student.... if you couldnt afford it you would have bought something cheaper....lol....good luck with the new tires....

aresh

i had the same problem and was told a higher price..more like 500. buy 1 tire off of ebay..or buy all 4 new tires non-runflat.

xBMWx

That could have been real nasty -- pleased to hear you "learnt your lesson" without any harm being caused... except to your wallet of course!

I had a similar experience with non-RFT on a previous E46 where BMW told me they had replaced my tyres but hadn't! I drove down the autobahn at around 180kph, with my parents onboard, and then started hearing strange noises. I slowed down to around 120kph for the rest of the autobahn journey and went to a dealer the next day.... they put it up on a ramp, saw gashes (but not holes letting air out) on the inside of the front tyre. My home BMW dealer had not replaced my tyres after all and the BMW dealer I had taken it too told me my car was not safe to be driven, at all! I had been on the motorway with my parents in the car assuming my tyres were safe to use, because they looked fine on the outside and I had been told they had been replaced. (They looked ok enough when I received it back from BMW the evening before when it was dark -- I assume all was fine and didn't look that closely.) I cannot begin to say how furious I was and obviously took the matter up with the MD at my home dealer.

So I also had a similar "lesson learnt" and regularly check my tires; outside and inside facing tyre walls!!

Rudy

My bet is you had a small puncture (like a nail or something) but your continued use (abuse) of the tire while it was flat caused it to overheat, melt, tear, etc.

There's no way all that damage happened at once since you would have heard or felt something when it did...

I assume you've stopped driving on it now -- if not, you probably should!

hondik

One more lesson you should avoid to learn - if you try to save money it isn't always cheaper

thefatalrisk

Thanks for the reply guys.

Hondik: I'm in Australia (the road conditions are great here).

snkpkp: I was fortunate enough to have my sister and my mother pay for the majority of the car. Its not always the case where expensive car = rich owner. I'm not trying to chase a 'sympathy deal.'

xBMWx: That 180kmph ride could have been catastrophic! Glad nothing untoward happened. I'm not sure about non-RFT tyres, but the flat RFT tyre that I had look just as inflated as all the rest. But it had zero pressure. Which is why the automatic tyre pumps at the gas/petrol station weren't pumping/sensing anything. Apparently them pumps need some tyre pressure in order to read tyre pressure and pump.

Rudy: Yeah, I think you're spot on. The guy at the tyre factory showed me a little dent where a nail possibly could have gone through. The rest of the damage would've most likely have been secondary as you say. Yes I have stopped driving it for now, haha.

I still assume that I'll be okay with running non-RFT's on the rear and keeping front RFTs as is?

Regards

Rossman_999

I would not recomend mixing RFT and non RF on the same car.

theXman

Glad you're ok and nothing serious happened, except damage to the wallet. BTW - I hate RFT.